Atmos Energy Corporation $ATO Shares Sold by Cambiar Investors LLC

Cambiar Investors LLC lessened its holdings in Atmos Energy Corporation (NYSE:ATO) by 41.7% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 31,776 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 22,735 shares during the quarter. Cambiar Investors LLC’s holdings in Atmos Energy were worth $5,426,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of ATO. AGP Franklin LLC grew its holdings in Atmos Energy by 1.0% in the third quarter. AGP Franklin LLC now owns 11,504 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,964,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares during the period. Little House Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of Atmos Energy by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Little House Capital LLC now owns 10,733 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,833,000 after buying an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Atmos Energy by 9.4% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 20,888 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,567,000 after buying an additional 1,801 shares in the last quarter. Sovran Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Atmos Energy in the 3rd quarter valued at $217,000. Finally, Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI purchased a new stake in Atmos Energy in the 3rd quarter worth $1,241,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have issued reports on ATO. Bank of America reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $185.00 price objective (up from $182.00) on shares of Atmos Energy in a report on Thursday, October 16th. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Atmos Energy from $163.00 to $182.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Atmos Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 23rd. Zacks Research raised Atmos Energy to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 18th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on Atmos Energy from $165.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Atmos Energy has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $174.33.

Atmos Energy Stock Up 0.3%

ATO stock opened at $168.93 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $169.44 and a two-hundred day moving average of $168.16. Atmos Energy Corporation has a 12 month low of $140.56 and a 12 month high of $180.65. The company has a market cap of $27.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.55, a PEG ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 0.77.

Atmos Energy (NYSE:ATO) last issued its earnings results on Friday, November 14th. The utilities provider reported $1.04 earnings per share for the quarter. Atmos Energy had a return on equity of 9.07% and a net margin of 25.49%.The business had revenue of $737.48 million for the quarter. As a group, analysts forecast that Atmos Energy Corporation will post 7.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Atmos Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 8th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 24th were paid a $1.00 dividend. This is a boost from Atmos Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.87. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 24th. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. Atmos Energy’s dividend payout ratio is 53.40%.

Insider Activity at Atmos Energy

In other news, Director Sean Donohue sold 450 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.15, for a total transaction of $77,017.50. Following the transaction, the director owned 877 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $150,098.55. The trade was a 33.91% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.43% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Atmos Energy Company Profile

Atmos Energy Corporation (NYSE: ATO) is a U.S.-based natural-gas utility that primarily focuses on the regulated distribution of natural gas. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, the company operates through local distribution systems to deliver natural gas to residential, commercial, industrial and electric generation customers. Atmos’s core activities include pipeline operations, gas distribution, system maintenance and reliability programs designed to ensure safe and continuous service to its customers.

The company’s services encompass gas delivery, system integrity and maintenance, storage and transmission connections, and customer-facing programs such as billing, conservation initiatives and energy-efficiency offerings.